Taken
by Flying Penguinz
Summary: After Myrnin and Claire create the new machine for Morganville. He sets the memory loss for three years, and he just forgets. Him and his struggles with remembering... or not.
1. Slipping Away

**Ghost Town.**

**Myrnin creates the machine, sets the memory loss for three years, and loses his memory. These are his stages of grief he goes through while he can't recall the past three years of his existence.

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Myrnin had felt the power of the machine he and Claire had created. He felt its draw on his mind. And he gave himself freely to that pull.

Myrnin thought that it just had something to do with the things he had given it. Parts of him. Essences of him. A little blood, to stabilize the system. A piece of flesh and tears, for the more alchemical purposes of the invention. He thought he was feeling it more than anyone else because he had given parts of him.

At first, he felt as if anyone and everyone were out to get him.

And then it wasn't a horrible feeling. The paranoia was gone and then it was as if... as if burdens were being lifted off his shoulders and he could stop worrying so much about everything that was concerning him.

Until, one day, it all came crashing down on him.

His head felt like it would split open from everything that was stored inside.

And then it did.

Events were being taken away. Ideas were being ripped from his grasp. He was being stripped from all of his memories.

Everything. Gone.

He grabbed his head. "Claire..." he moaned. He fell to his knees from the devastating things happening to his mind. "Claire, where are you? I need..." What had he been saying? The words were on the tip of his tongue, but he couldn't find them. Not with his head pounding and exploding. Ah. "I need you."

No one came. No one came and Myrnin was left to suffer through this horrible experience alone.

Being torn from him was a feeling he was all too familiar with.

Myrnin's sanity was being taken from him.

Even he could tell in his current state.

"No," he whimpered on the floor. "No. I don't want this. I—please. Please, no..."

And it was gone. Everything.

But the insanity... it had a firm grasp on his mind and had no intention of letting go. And Myrnin accepted it as who he was. He hadn't known anything else, had he? There was nothing to compare his madness to. It had been part of him for as long as he could remember.

There was no saving him. There was no hope in surviving this. They had given up hope that he'd be able to train someone quickly enough to find a cure. He and Amelie.

But what hurt the most was that _Amelie _was _giving up_ on him.

Nobody cared anymore. The only one he had left was Ada.

Oh, his darling Ada. She could be rather annoying sometimes, but usually she was such a clever girl. But that was how they... seemed to show their love for one another. It was odd, but that was how it was.

"Ada," he called into the dark of his lab. She occasionally answered when he called, but it appeared she was feeling particularly stubborn today. "Fine," he said. "Then I will come to you."

He turned around and stepped (almost _glided_) over where the trapdoor was to Ada's confinement. He saw an unfamiliar keypad that wouldn't allow him access to the door unless he knew the password. And then there was a plate that seemed to be meant for his hand. Maybe it scanned his fingerprints. Technology these days. He scoffed. Whoever had placed this in his laboratory was foolish. Everyone knew he didn't like the modern days.

He looked at the letters on the keypad. He only had three passwords. Amelie's name. Ada's. Or his.

Myrnin typed in the first one that was already on his mind.

_Ada._

The system made a sound of computerized approval.

He moved on to the plate. Myrnin pressed his hand on the thing and it made another sound that seemed to say he was correct in placing his hand on the piece of technology. The door to the underground chamber opened.

He jumped in and his feet soon met cool ground, engulfed in perfect darkness. Myrnin walked toward Ada's cave. A way he had traveled many times before.

He was curious. Why didn't he hear the sounds of the usual clanking and hissing of Ada's machine?

Myrnin flitted the rest of the way. And when he got to the entrance, he came to a sudden halt.

Myrnin held on to the rocky doorframe for support as shock took over.

_Where was Ada?_

And what was _this _that replaced her? A... large computer screen? The thing was connected to cables and wires and boxes of machines all around the room. But... Ada's box was gone.

Where was _Ada_?

Myrnin stormed into the cave and looked behind the control boxes, knowing full well that Ada wasn't going to be hiding in the crevasses or in the small, narrow spots of free space.

He roared in his frustration and kicked one of the panels.

Myrnin threw himself on the ground, staring around at all of the parts that looked so unfamiliar, it was scary.

Where was Ada?

Had someone... had someone _taken_ her?

"Ada!" he screamed in fury. "Ada, I need you! Come here!" He sobbed into his arms that rested on his knees which were pulled up under his chin. "I don't know where you are. Please, Ada. Talk to me. I don't know what's happening. Something is happening. I need you to help me. Please! I feel myself... slipping away. Going away."

The continuous sound of a blowing fan that seemed to be built deep inside the computer so that it wouldn't overheat answered his plea for help.

What was wrong here? Where had his Ada gone?

He stood up and wiped his teary eyes. Well, he thought, whoever _had_ done this was going to pay.

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**Please, please, please review. I'd like feedback on this one.**


	2. Torturing Sadness

A suffocating feeling of understanding overwhelmed him as tears filled his eyes. Ada was the only thing that kept him alive. And now? Well, now she was _gone_.

He couldn't live without her. Which wasn't an exaggeration, but the truth. The whole truth.

"Ada," he pleaded in the corner of his lab. "Ada, please. Please, oh please, oh please. I want you back. I love you. Don't ever question it. You're wonderful. I need you. I don't know what I'm going to do without you here to talk me out of it."

Nobody understood it like Ada did. She had been there every single day. Ada had listened. Ada had soothed. _Ada had been there for him_.

Myrnin rocked himself on the balls of his feet, trying to find comfort in the motion. He'd been doing this for the past... hour? Twelve hours? Twenty-four?

Time had no meaning. Not anymore. Not when Ada was gone.

Numb pain was sent from his nerves in his forearms to his brain. He took a moment to process it, not understanding why it was happening. Myrnin looked down at his wrists. He was holding each forearm in a hand. His fingernails had been digging into the flesh of his arm, tearing skin, ripping muscle, releasing blood. He had been hurting himself.

He hadn't realized what he'd been doing, but now that he saw, he got an idea. A torturingly sad, miserable idea.

Maybe he hadn't suffered _enough_. Maybe he had to suffer _more_ for her to be given back to him.

With that being the only logical conclusion he could come up with, he began ripping off all of the skin he could in that moment.

He didn't want to heal. He didn't want it to go away. The pain was the only thing he could take right now, not the ridiculous emotions he was feeling before. He couldn't deal with them. _Because he didn't have the answers._

Myrnin hated it when he didn't have answers. And this was certainly a problem he couldn't solve. Not on his own. And not without his dear Ada.

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**Yes, this was short. But a review would be nice all the same. Thank you! **


	3. Involuntary Pain

Myrnin didn't know how long he sat there, trying to bring as much pain as he could. Hitting his head against the wall repeatedly, tearing more flesh off his arms...

And then there was the involuntary pain. A pain he didn't want at all. A pain that could never compare to anything else.

His breaking heart.

Ada wouldn't leave him. Never. They loved each other more than Julius Caesar loved killing. More than King John loved taxing. More than humans loved blood.

Wait.

More than blood loved humans.

No.

More than humans _needed_ blood.

More than a vampire loved blood.

Yes.

_Blood_.

He needed to feed.

But he couldn't leave. Not if Ada came back while he was gone. Maybe whoever took her was just waiting outside for him to leave so they could take Ada's machine in quickly and put her back in place.

He wouldn't leave. Which meant he would resort to his compulsion.

Myrnin went and stood at the bottom of the stairs that led up to the door of his laboratory. He closed his eyes and let his mind wander to what was happening in the outside world.

And the first thing he picked up was all of the confusion. _So much of it!_

Because it was night, there were few humans out. But, a few ran to and fro, looking for lost things. Trying to find something that had been either stolen or misplaced.

The helplessness of the humans made the feeling of hunter and prey rise in his chest and cloud his mind. They brought out the beast that thought only of survival. The Myrnin that was evil and careless. The mind whose thoughts were full of nothing but of the blood that coursed through human veins.

He couldn't do this. He couldn't allow his prey to run above ground with no one to chase after them. He would provide them that service. A service free of charge. Because he wasn't going to just sit in his lab and have his meal come to him when _he_ could hunt.

Myrnin seemed to take all but one lithe step and he was then in front of his shack door. He crawled gracefully through a hole in the wooden panels he had fashioned for himself years ago when Amelie had decided to lock him in his wretched home.

He strolled through his alley as if he had all the time in the world, because he could sense that none of the pandemonium happening up here was going to end anytime soon. But when he exited the mouth of his alleyway, he crouched down low and entered the darker shadows to find dinner.

He tracked down a woman who hadn't a clue what she was doing, so Myrnin followed. When he had her almost cornered in between a few buildings, he took advantage of her weakened state and delved into her mind. He didn't want to make a mess of his meal.

Her thoughts rang loud in his head, making Myrnin hesitate for the slightest instant.

_Where is my family? Why haven't they come home for dinner? Who is this man? Why is he following me? Maybe he knows what's happening._

This woman turned around and looked at Myrnin, meeting his dark eyes, perfect for what he was about to do.

"Hello? Do you..." she trailed off as Myrnin took hold of her brain.

"Come here," he said smoothly. The woman moved forward toward him. "Are you lost?" he asked, playing the familiar game of valiant hero and then last minute turning into the monster he was.

She nodded tremulously. "Yes, I can't see to find my daughter... She was about to graduate college, her apartment was over there," she said quietly, pointing to an apartment building a few blocks away. "The owner said she moved out three years ago, but that's not possible! She was living with _me _three years ago!" By now, she had broken down into tears and was sobbing into her hands. "I don't know what to do anymore."

Myrnin smiled inwardly. "Follow me, milady. I know where your daughter is."

"Y-you do?" she asked, wiping her eyes.

"Of course." He picked through her thoughts and saw a girl who resembled this woman greatly. That must be her daughter. "Dark brown hair and green eyes?"

"That's her," she sniffed.

"Wonderful," Myrnin said gently, I saw her near the library." He led her away and down the street, spotting the perfect alley for a crime he was about to commit.

And an onlooker would only have to see Myrnin walk in with the woman and come out alone, wiping his mouth with a sleeve to know what he had done.

**...**

Myrnin came out of the alley with his hunger quieted. With his head on straight and the wheels in his brain turning at a normal pace instead of stumbling around from one subject to another, he went to speak to Amelie about Ada.

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**Keep reviewing... stay tuned.**


	4. Time of Despair

Myrnin got to the room of Amelie's studies without any difficulties.

He opened the door brandishing her symbol he'd created for her so many years ago and found her sitting in complete darkness. The curtains were drawn and the lamps were put out. The only light that was in the room was from fluorescent bulbs that lit the hallway, spilling in from the open door.

Amelie was seated in one of the velvet-upholstered armchairs in front of her book collection shelved on the walls.

"Amelie?"

"Myrnin. Come in." Her voice was soft and quiet. Something in it sounded so familiar. Something that was in Myrnin's voice too often. Something that didn't belong in something that came from Amelie's always-determined mouth.

Defeat.

Myrnin walked in and shut the door behind him, engulfing them in complete darkness, but seeing everything with perfect detail.

Amelie's back was rigid, her posture was perfect. Amelie's small hands clutched the arms of the chair as her eyes stared off into the distance, unseeing.

"Myrnin," she said again, not looking away from whatever she was focusing on. "I can't... I keep having pictures flash across my mind. They persist and will not cease flashing before my vision. They refuse to leave until I remember something... _something_ I cannot remember. But the images aren't mine." Her face remained perfectly smooth, and her voice gave away no emotion. "Or, if they are, images that I have not yet lived."  
Myrnin didn't understand what she was saying.

"There are so many vampires who are coming in, asking me questions. I say meaningless words to calm them, and they do not work. I've tried calling Samuel, but he isn't answering. I think he's given up on me, my old friend. Samuel's finally found sense and left me." She wiped a silent tear from her eye quickly, sighed quietly, and returned to her perfect façade. "But here I am going on about my problems, when you hardly come to visit me anyway, so there must be an issue you have that you need to ask me of. But before I begin to wonder what it is, how are you faring with this disease?"

"I... You know, I have not exactly thought about the last time I've had a lapse." His brows furrowed while he was trying to think. "No, I don't know. How is _your_ battle with _my _old friend, the disease?"

She sighed and closed her eyes, shaking her head very lightly. When her eyes opened, they became fixated in the distance once again. "I can't stop thinking, Myrnin. I think all the time usually, yes, but this thinking is different. I will be reading a book on old crimes to decide the fit punishment of a guilty man, yes? And then his actions or the words of the case will make me think of something else. Then my train of thought will wander until it's gone so far off track that I don't remember what piece I had started with. And then my time has been wasted with me wallowing in my head. You know, I believe I could sit here for centuries on end with just my thoughts for company." She didn't say it with regret, or even any hint of anger or boredom. Amelie said those words in a voice filled with neutrality so that it was even worse to hear. Amelie was a woman of action, and she never just sat around being melancholic. That was his job.

Myrnin leaned on the armchair and placed a hand on Amelie's small one, hers still grasping the arms of the chair. "I know exactly how you feel, my friend."

Amelie finally broke off her icy stare at the opposite walls of the studies and looked up at Myrnin. "But what have you come for, my friend? What wound do you wish me to heal with empty words?"

Myrnin paused, trying to gather himself to tell Amelie. But he couldn't bear it. He bowed his head, letting a single tear fall.

"Myrnin? What is it?" Amelie looked genuinely concerned now and her tone was worried. Not so monotone any longer. He sank to his knees, grabbing the side of the seat Amelie was in for support. He buried his head in her satin sleeve and let the tears break through the dam once more. She was surprised, but merely put a soft and gentle hand on his head and listened to him cry for a moment with a pained expression. Seeing her friend in such distress when she could do nothing was torture to her and she let the empathy fill herself before he pulled himself together enough to speak coherently.

"Ada is gone, Amelie," he said, his voice more pained than it had ever been. "Ada is gone and I need her more than I've ever needed anything else in my whole existence."

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**Things are getting started... Reviews are welcome. **


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